Monday, January 13, 2014

My most requested recipe: Potluck Quinoa and vegetable Salad

I am always getting asked for this recipe. Every time I take it to a
potluck or serve it for dinner everyone wants the recipe. Actually I should
rephrase that a little. All of the women who try this salad ask for the recipe.

I like to keep the fruit in a separate bag until I am ready to serve, I layer the salad with the nuts and seeds on top. Dress the salad with dressing and add the fruit just before serving.

I have taken this salad to one friend’s home twice and at both dinner
parties, I found all of the women hiding in the kitchen after dinner having
seconds and thirds of the salad. Whenever I run into someone who has eaten this
salad they ask me for the recipe. Ihad
a request again on New Year’s Eve. Our guest had a call from a friend who found
out she was at our home and requested that she get the recipe. I started
to compile pictures and data for this salad in the summer, but every time I
made it I forgot to get a final picture of the salad before serving. This time
the finished photos are not great but at least I have a picture.

The best thing about this salad is how versatile it is. You can make a
few changes to some of the ingredients depending on the season and it does not
affect the distinct flavor of the salad. This is a choice I especially like to
take to a potluck meal as it is loaded with good, fresh foods. As I have so
many acute foods allergies and Celiac disease, going to a potluck is a risky
eating experience. This salad is free of many common allergy foods, except for
nuts. It is also very filling and would meet my culinary needs for a meal, even
if this was the only food I could eat from the potluck meal. It is important to
take something you can eat yourself when you go to such a function as it may be
the only thing that is safe for you to eat. I am not going to ramble anymore as
I am going to let this salad speak for itself.

This is a beautiful blend of sweet and savory flavors tossed with
wholesome goodness. I always start this salad very traditional with half a bowl of mixed
greens or chopped romaine. The mixed greens give you a wonderful array of sweet
and bitter. The romaine is very hardy and stands up well to the dressing.

I
usually just go with whatever lettuce or salad mix looks the freshest. I then like to add a large handful of bright red cherry tomatoes. They
are a great source of natural lycopene.

I like to use the cherry tomatoes
rather than larger chopped tomatoes so they last longer in the salad. These
days we are able to get beautiful hot house cherry tomatoes all year long.
There is really no reason you cannot use fresh chopped tomato if that is what
you have on hand.

I also like to add chopped green onion and cucumber too.

Long english cucumbers are my favorite choice as they do not need to be peeled or seeded. They are just so crisp and fresh tasting. If you can find them try the little baby cucumbers, they are very tender and sweet.

Baby english cucumbers, I always use them when I can find them.

So far this salad is pretty average, nothing
really too exciting so far. Now is when I start to play with the ingredients. I love using chopped daikon radish or white
radish in my salad too. You can use regular radishes, like in the spring when
they are fresh from the garden, but in the winter I love the daikon.

It has a
milder taste than the smaller radishes. It can provide a quarter of the RDA of
vitamin C to your diet. I also find it faster and easier to clean and prepare
for a salad. It comes in one large chunk and you need only peel it and chop it
into small bite size pieces. It1 stores very well in the refrigerator too. Many
groceries cut them into more manageable sizes as they can be pretty large. They
are usually found in the oriental produce section of the produce department. I
like that radishes add a nice kick to the finished salad.

So what makes this salad special, because so far it is pretty average?
Now that you have a base salad you can start to play with the remaining
ingredients. I especially like to add toasted nuts. My first choice is usually
pecans and pumpkin seeds (Pepita). I always toast my
nuts in the oven or a pan to bring out the flavour of the nuts. Just watch your
nuts very careful. You want to toast them long enough to bring out the toasted
flavour and not so long that they burn (which can happen really fast).

One of the best tests for toasting the doneness of your nuts is by
sight, the colour of your nuts should deepen a little and aroma, they will
begin to envelope your kitchen in a wonderful nutty scent. When you toast your
nuts it releases their natural essential oils and makes their flavour more
complex. This changes them from their raw state, and they become more fragrant
and flavourful. This is one step you do not want to skip. When you listen to a
chef talking about cooking they bring up the subject of adding depth of flavour
to a recipe, this is one of those times, roasting nuts add a depth of flavour
and texture to your recipe Nuts can be roasted in a stove top pan or in the
microwave, but I prefer oven roasting. If you overcook your nuts they will have
a strong burned flavour. So be careful and attentive while doing your roasting.
It is usually best if you chop your nuts after they are roasted as they roast
much faster when they are chopped. Set your timer for the lowest time and then
watch them very closely after that.

TYPE OF NUT

TIME TO ROAST

Almonds

10 minutes

Cashews

8-10 minutes

Hazelnuts

12-15 minutes

Macadamia Nuts

12-15 minutes

Pecans

10-15 minutes

Pepitos (Pumpkin Seeds)

10 minutes

Pine Nuts

5 minutes

Walnuts

10-15 minutes

The next ingredients are changeable depending on the season.
I like to add some fresh fruit or berries depending on what is in season.
Grapes, blueberries, apple, pear, pomegranate seeds or strawberries, just
choose what is the freshest and in season. The contrast of sweet fruit and
toasted nuts make this salad amazing. I only choose one fruit per salad to keep the flavors clean. If you add too many ingredients the flavors get to complex. I also love to add a cup of dried cranberries. They are a fruit but they are also tart.

I also add one cup of cooked quinoa. The best quinoa is
cooked 1 cup of dried quinoa with a clove of fresh garlic, crushed and half of
a red onion chopped. Add 2 cups of gluten free chicken stock. I like to cook my
quinoa in the oven. Just put it in a lidded casserole dish and bake about
thirty minutes until the liquid is absorbed and the quinoa is cooked. Not chewy
or mushy.

The last ingredient is my favorite homemade salad dressing.
Add just enough to moisten the salad without drowning it and toss. This makes a
perfect salad with many of the recommended food groups. It is perfect at a
potluck when you cannot eat the other offerings. I like to use white balsamic
vinegar in my dressing as it has lots of flavour but does not turn your salad
greens all brown like regular balsamic vinegar. It is so easy to make your own
dressing I find myself missing the packaged dressings and making my own all of
the time. I hope you enjoy. I find if I add the toasted nuts to a salad, my husband who is not a big salad eater always has a larger serving. I really like that these are all healthy foods and they taste amazing together. I hope you enjoy.

I like to use organic spices as some of the foreign sources are not concerned with soil safety. This was something the naturopathic doctor recommended.

I love this hand painted bottle for mixing my dressing. It was a gift from my Dad and Step Mom

Ingredients

6 cups of mixed salad greens

1 cup of fresh cherry tomatoes

1 cup of chopped cucumber, baby
if you can get it

½ cup of chopped radish, either
red or daikon (peeled)

½ cup of chopped green onion

1 ½ cups of fruit or berries
(apples, pears, strawberries, grapes, pomegranate seeds, blueberries choose one
that is in season)